An observer who recorded violations in a Moscow-region local election has been hospitalized with a ruptured spleen after being attacked by a group of men, a news report said.

Stanislav Pozdnyakov was watching an election last weekend in the Moscow region city of Balashikha when he claimed to have witnessed ballet-box stuffing, the OVD Info news site reported Sunday.

A group of eight men later arrived in a BMW with no number plates and severely beat him and another man Dmitry Nesterov, OVD reported, citing Pozdnyakov’s friend Dmitry Georgiyevsky.

Pozdnyakov initially reported the incident to police, but noticed a bleed a few days later and was taken to Moscow’s Sklifosovsky hospital where he he had his spleen removed, the report said.